On Monday, members of the USC Divest from Death encampment pledged they are not going anywhere from Alumni Park following talks with President Carol Folt.
Speakers told the crowd in the park that the meeting with Folt was “frustrating,” even as they plan to return to the negotiating table Tuesday at 2 p.m.
According to a USC Divest representative, Folt told negotiators that no students involved in the encampment were at risk of academic consequences for their participation.
The entire meeting was recorded by both USC Divest from Death representatives and Folt’s legal team, according to the coalition.
The representative told the crowd that there is a recording in which Folt states, “I would never do that,” in reference to academic consequences for those arrested and involved.
Annenberg Media reached out to a media liaison of the encampment who confirmed the recording’s existence but did not share it. The university has not yet responded to a late night question about the claim.
Speakers also said they wished the meeting would have addressed their demands in a more substantive way. They said that they felt Folt spoke “condescendingly.”
“We need tangible steps,” said one of the speakers. “We need [the administration] to come to the table and have some sort of response, not just ‘what are you talking about?’”
Folt acknowledged their dissatisfaction in her own statement after the meeting, and that she can “fully appreciate” that organizers did not consider the meeting to be “a win from their perspective.”
One of the speakers said Folt noted that she had been in touch with the Advisory Committee on Muslim Life at USC — and had to be reminded that the majority of that committee’s members had resigned a week before.
“We’ll be connecting folks with attorneys,” a speaker said. “We have some of the most amazing attorneys in LA who are going to work on this.”
The speaker mentioned that they were frustrated with Folt’s generalizations with regard to USC’s commitment to diversity, like her supposed reference to the Advisory Committee on Muslim Life or the claim that Folt tried to “weaponize” a USC building being named after an indigenous person.
On her end, Folt had issued a statement saying she thinks this meeting was a vital starting point.
The meeting was attended by four student representatives and one faculty member who the coalition identified as Jody Armour, a Gould professor. Folt was joined by Beong-Soo Kim, senior vice President and general counsel as well as Monique Allard, vice president for student life.
Armour specializes in relationships between “racial justice, criminal justice, and the rule of law” and has been active at the site since it started last week.
“The students acquitted themselves eloquently, forcefully, & honorably,” Armour posted on X on Monday following the meeting.
The speaker concluded the Q&A session by saying, “At this moment, right now, we should be grounded in a reason for being here, which is fighting for a liberated Palestine.”